Babs burrowed her head in her arms in distress.
"Wait, so he walked in on you and Zatanna dancing?" Cassie said.
"Yes! It was so embarrassing. Like, I was being all stupid and dumb and then he just walked in on us and—" Her voice trailed off, and she stared at the ground again, palpably mortified. "I'll never be able to face him again."
"I'm just saying, I think Dick was pretty happy seeing you two." Cassie's remark earned a rebuking look and sharp prod from a scowling Babs. "Just stating the truth." She shrugged.
"Can I just jump in a ditch and die?" Babs cried, laying her head on a stack of books.
Her hair sprawled out, making her resemble a palm tree. Cassie rolled her eyes and pulled up Babs's head. "No, because then you wouldn't be able to talk to Dick and laugh with him about what happened."
"He probably is laughing!" Babs groaned. "Besides, he and Zatanna are already together. There's no point in trying to get between them."
Cassie scrutinized the situation, brooding silently for a few seconds. "Yeah, this is definitely an imbroglio."
"What's an imbroglio?"
"A complication," Cassie informed. "I think you should just go up to him, grab him by his collar, and pounce on him like the vixen you are!"
Babs simply gawked at her friend in response, aghast. "No—I don't think I'll do that," she said slowly.
"I was joking!" Cassie exclaimed defensively. "Either way, I think you should just get to know him like a friend. I mean, who knows, maybe Zatanna and Dick will break up and you'll be there to comfort him…" she saw the affronted look on Babs's face and quickly added, "but, I mean—that shouldn't be the reason you're going to be friends with him because—I—ugh, I just can't win this, can I?"
"You know, I would follow your advice and become friends with him. But the fact that I completely and utterly humiliated myself in front of him like that is the main factor in why I can never see his face in the light of the day again," Babs bemoaned.
"Okay." Cassie threw her arms up in surrender. "Fine. You have my approval to sulk around all day, wallowing in your own puddle of some sort of melancholic misery."
"Thank you," Babs huffed.
"You may choose your partners."
Immediately Babs looked over at Cassie who leaned over towards her. "Babs, you should pair up with Dick."
"What? No! He probably already has a partner. And remember, I have your approval to sulk around all day, wallowing in sadness or—whatever. But you said you'd let me be!" Babs protested.
"I said you could sulk. But I mentioned nothing about project partners," Cassie argued.
"Well, you don't have a partner!" Babs pointed out.
Cassie surveyed the room for a fleeting second before walking off. "Hey, Jaime! You're my partner," she called. She sat down next to the mystified boy deemed Jaime, not waiting for a response.
Babs sighed in exasperation.
"Hey, Babs?" a voice that was unmistakably Dick's said.
She turned around to see the infuriatingly attractive reason for her chagrin. "Yeah?"
"Do you wanna be partners?"
From her peripheral vision, Babs could perceive an elated Cassie silently cheering her on and nodding vigorously. "Uh, sure," she answered. Dick sat himself in the desk next to her.
Throughout the rest of the period, they conversed—or Dick talked to her, rather. Babs simply listened and worked diligently on their project. To her relief, he brought nothing up about their run-in last night. Babs allowed herself to rest.
Unfortunately, all good things came to an end. "So, why did you run off like that last night?" Dick sat back on his chair, slinging his sinewy arm around the back of Babs's chair. It lingered close to her back, almost touching her.
"Why do you think?"
"You don't have to be embarrassed. I've humiliated myself tons of times. And most of them were in public," Dick said straightforwardly.
"Really?" The skepticism in her tone was prevalent.
"What? You don't believe me?"
"Well, can you blame me? You don't look like the type of person who gets embarrassed every day. Or, at all," Babs disclosed. She kept her eyes trained on the desk and prayed that Dick wasn't able to see the red flushing her face this very instant.
"So…what do I look like, then?" Dick inquired.
"Uh—I dunno, maybe…um, who knows?" Babs silently cursed herself for fumbling with her words—yet again. But then again, how could she think straight with Dick staring intently at her, with his eyebrows creased in mild amusement? "I guess you look like yourself. Nothing more, and nothing less."
"Interesting answer," he mused. "So, what exactly am I then? If I look like myself, what does 'myself' look like?"
Babs glared at him with an air of annoyance. "You look like yourself, okay? End of conversation."
"No, it's not the end—" The bell cut his words short.
"I think it is," she said. Babs gathered the scattered papers on her desk hastily before scurrying as fast as she could out of that room. She stuffed her papers in her bag while an overjoyed Cassie caught up to her.
"Soooo," she started, "how's the project going? How's your partner doing?"
"Cassie, you are a hundred percent delusional!" Babs shrieked with a scowl. "Why did you abandon me to work with someone else?"
"I just wanted you to get a chance to speak with him at least. I wanted to give you the chance to get to know him better, and—I don't know, I just wanted to help," Cassie said. "Either way, I did it for your benefit! Please forgive me?"
Babs sighed for what seemed like the hundredth time today. "Okay, it's fine. But I'm still too ashamed to even look at him. He basically questioned me earlier, and I stumbled again. I embarrassed myself even further," she mumbled.
"Well, look on the bright side. At least you can't embarrass yourself any further." Cassie's remark elicited yet another glower.
"Yes. You always know the right thing to say," Babs managed through clenched teeth.
"Yep, that's why you're my friend!" Cassie exclaimed brightly, socking Babs on the shoulder.
Zatanna walked out of her math class, a pleased bounce barely perceivable in her gait. She clutched her quiz in her hand tightly, as if it would dissipate right from her fingertips. She'd gotten a B+ on the quiz, much to her revelation. Zatanna couldn't remember the last time when she'd scored as high as this. She couldn't remember the last time when there had been more check marks than fat, red slashes.
Dick caught up to her in the hallway. "Hey Zee," he greeted, tossing an arm around her shoulders. "What're you so happy about? Wait, let me guess. You're happy because I'm here, right?"
Zatanna rolled her eyes good-naturedly. "Of course," she chuckled.
Dick eyed the paper she was gripping. "Oh, how'd you do on your quiz?"
"Okay, brace yourself…I got an eighty-nine!" she exclaimed happily.
"Really? Your tutoring really worked—but from what I gathered, you and Babs didn't really do much math, did you?"
"Shut up," Zatanna laughed.
"Well, congrats." Dick kissed her quickly on the cheek, pulling her closer to him. "Oh, by the way, can I have Babs's number?"
Her face scrunched up in confusion. "Why?"
"She's my partner for this stupid History project," he explained, already pulling his phone out.
"Um, sure." Zatanna told him her number.
"I'll see you later, Zee." Dick waved and raced off, leaving a baffled Zatanna in his wake.
A/N: Okie dokie, so thank you to anyone who followed or favorited and to speedreader1999, midnightmoon321, Makorra123, HipstaGurlxoxo and a Guest for reviewing. Much appreciated. :')
Also, I have to apologize again for the awkwardly written dialogue and interactions. I'm just not very good at how humans communicate, I guess?
And I know that Cassie's only fourteen and she's like four years younger than Babs and Dick and Zee and everyone, but remember, this is an AU, and basically everything else is inaccurate as well so… yeah. Um I talk too much.